Ban Animal Trading SA protests outside Devon Valley pet store

DEVON VALLEY – Ban Animal Trading South Africa protested peacefully outside of the Repti Pet store in Devon Valley, against the alleged poor treatment of the animals sold at the store.

Supporters of Ban Animal Trading South Africa lined the roads outside of the store on 17 February with posters asking the community not to support pet stores that sell animals.

The alleged unfair treatment of the animals was discovered by Laura van der Poll when she took her bearded dragon back to the store because it was sick.

“When I got to the store I noticed that the brothers of my dragon had died. I started to look at the other pets in the store and was shocked that none of them had UV lamps or heating pads. It made me really angry to see animals being treated so badly,” added van der Poll.

Being an avid animal lover, Van der Poll immediately contacted Ban Animal Trading South Africa to get help.

Smaragda Louw from Ban Animal Trading SA was shocked at the situation. She visited the store on Tuesday (14 February) and said that what she found was a horrific sight.

“I saw rats living among dead rats. The smell of death was all over the store. As an organisation we ask the community not to support animal trading and encourage them to adopt rather than shop,” explained Louw.

“There are no fans in the shop and a single window is left open overnight to provide ventilation for more than 12 hours to all the animals kept in this shop.”

SPCA Roodepoort was contacted to investigate the pet store. The manager Mandy Cattanach said, “We have been to the store to investigate the matter on a number of occasions. There are a few problems that we identified and we have been in contact with the owner.”

Cattanach explained some of the problems that were noticed included: not ideal environments for the reptiles, rats living among dead rats, the incorrect food and incorrect enclosures for the animals.

She added that the inspectors had spoken to the owner and would continue to monitor the situation until it drastically improves.

Repti Pets had closed their doors and refused to speak to anyone or let anyone inside the store at the time of the protest.

Randburg Sun knocked on the doors of the pet store, in an attempt to obtain comment from them.

Randburg Sun also attempted to contact the store telephonically both during the week leading up to the protest and on the day of the protest, but to no avail.

Should the store respond to Randburg Sun, their comment will be published as an update.